Depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other debilitating mental illnesses inhibit emancipated youth from creating healthy and sustaining relationships, furthering their education, and gaining employment. Other than very limited, underfunded, and overcrowded public health options, almost no high-quality resources exist for these youth to get the critical mental health treatment they so desperately need.

Without the treatment necessary to cope with their mental illnesses, many emancipated youth will turn to drugs and alcohol to self-medicate their mental health symptoms. Addiction becomes the gateway to homelessness, incarceration and institutionalization. For the few treatment programs that do exist, the waiting lists are often long, treatment is short, and aftercare is almost non-existent. These limited resources are often allocated, due to funding restrictions, to those individuals exiting jail or prison. Moreover, these facilities offer treatment programs which do not address the specialized needs of traumatized former foster youth. The success rate for our youth in these types of facilities is extremely low.  Experience with our clients indicates that dual diagnosis care — treating mental illness and addiction simultaneously — produces the highest level of success.